Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

It is estimated that between 40 - 45% of Canadians will develop cancer within their lifetimes and that 1 in 4 Canadians will die from the disease. Cancer remains a significant health-care issue worldwide, outweighing heart disease in potential years of life lost. Approximately one half of all cancer patients will receive some form of radiation therapy (RT). As such, research in RT stands to positively impact the quality of life of a large number of patients. This proposal outlines research in two main areas related to RT of cancer: (i) experimental 3D dose measurement of complex radiation treatments; and (ii) the investigation of new imaging technologies (termed Raman microscopy) as a potential tool for mapping cellular response to RT. (i) 3D dosimetry: Current radiation delivery technology is capable of delivering highly complex dose distributions within a patient, such that a lethal dose of radiation is delivered to the tumour site while sparing surrounding healthy tissue. Experimental measurement of these complex deliveries are required to (a) ensure proper delivery and (b) aid in the further development of delivery technology. This area of the research program will concentrate on the development of radiosensitive, tissue equivalent, polymer gel materials for 3D dose verification in RT. Research will progress on two main fronts: (a) development of highly sensitive gel materials and (b) development of optical instrumentation for the imaging of irradiated polymer gel dosimeters. (ii) Raman microscopy for RT: The evaluation of patient response to RT is largely based on morphological, pathological, and volumetric criteria (e.g. tumour size pre and post RT). The ability to monitor and gauge disease response during the course of RT would have a dramatic effect on its efficacy, and as such an assessment would allow for the tailoring of radiation dose and volume on a patient-by-patient basis. This area of the research program will concentrate on the investigation of imaging technologies capable of providing biochemical information from samples (e.g. irradiated tissues) for the ultimate purpose of the assessment of patient response to RT.